State farmers on a junket to Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

State farmers on a junket to Cuba
Satish Shile, Bangalore, Dec 27, DHNS

Farmers in the State practising organic farming have an all-paid trip to Cuba coming their way. The government’s Organic Farming Mission has decided to send 1,000 farming couples to Cuba to get a peek into the organic farming revolution in the island nation, where 80 per cent of farmers avoid chemical fertilisers in farming.

The first batch of 350 farmers is expected to leave for Cuba next March. The government is expected to make a formal announcement about the trip after the completion of on-going panchayat elections.

The couples who own less than five acres and practise organic farming are eligible for the trip, the itinerary of which is yet to be worked out. The expenditure on each couple will be around Rs 2 lakh, which will be borne by the government .

Cuba, one of the world’s few socialist regimes, was compelled to depend on native farming techniques in the wake of the trade embargo imposed by the United States decades ago. The Cuban government has made organic farming a priority, handing over 80 per cent of state-owned land to private shareholder enterprises.

More:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/124252/state-farmers-junket-cuba.html

[social_critic]

1. Raul Castro says to stop blaming the embargo for their failures

You guys got to get aboard. Raul Castro just said one thing he's really tired of is the bums who blame their failure to perform on the embargo. He stated clearly from now on they won't be putting up with such garbage, and anybody who starts pointing fingers at the embargo for their failure to do the right thing is going to get fired - or worse. He gave as an example a state farm which has a huge herd of milk cows, which was feeding the milk to pigs - because they didn't have a truck to take the milk to market, and didn't bother to fix the one they had.

Wake up, kiddos, times are changing.

[naaman fletcher]

2. this is still a good thing

necessity is the mother of invention so it is not unreasonable to assume that cuban farmers might have some insight into low-cost organic farming.

[social_critic]

3. I don't think so

I'm Cuban, I know what's happening in Cuba, and most of what they do or know is set up to function in a surreal economic setting. The irrational behavior one sees in communist systems is truly amazing - it's like Alice in Wonderland.

You should see what i saw in the Soviet Union and other places. I was taken to visit a state comunal farm growing potatoes in greenhouses in the Arctic - because they didn't have a secure potato supply. The greenhouses were incredibly expensive, and they had to be heated using oil because in winter the temperature would drop as low as -50 degrees C. This is the real reason why communists are such efficient destructors of value, they use irrational decision making and don't have the foggiest idea of how to put value on things.